Dr. Stephen Rostain

Research Director
National Institute for Scientific Research, France


Highest Degree
Ph.D. in Archaeology from University of Pantheon-Sorbonne, France

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Biography

Dr. Stephen Rostain was born in the Harbor of Brest, France. He studied Archaeology at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris. After first contacts with New World Archaeology in Teotihuacan, Mexico, and on the Maya site of Chaguite, Guatemala, he focused his research on Amazonian and Caribbean Lowlands. He was employed as an Archaeologist in French Guiana from 1985 until he received his PhD in 1994. The topic of Dr. Stephen Rostains Doctoral Dissertation was Early Amerindian Occupation on the Guiana Coast. From 1994 to 1996, he was Co-director of the Archaeological Project Tanki Flip in Aruba, which led to the publication of a large monograph. Between 1996 and 2001, he lived in Ecuador, where he was Co-director of the Archaeological project Sangay-Upano and Director of the Rio Blanco project. Dr. Stephen Rostain is presently Director of Research at the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), and over the last ten years, he has been in charge of interdisciplinary project on the Guianas Coast. He did publish more than 100 publications. In 2008, he received the Paris the Clio award for French projects in foreign countries.

Area of Interest:

Plant and Soil Sciences
Archaeology
Archaeological Science
Tropical Rainforests
Ecological Engineering

Selected Publications

  1. Rostain, S., 2014. Islands in the Rainforest: Landscape Management in Pre-Columbian Amazonia (New Frontiers in Historical Ecology). Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek, ISBN-13: 978-1598746358, Pages: 277.

  2. Renard, D., J. Iriarte, J.J. Birk, S. Rostain, B. Glaser and D. McKey, 2012. Ecological engineers ahead of their time: The functioning of pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture and its potential contributions to sustainability today. Ecol. Eng., 45: 30-44.
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  3. Iriarte, J., B. Glaser, J. Watling, A. Wainwright and J. Birk et al., 2010. Agricultural landscapes of coastal Amazonia: Phytolith and carbon isotope analysis of raised fields from French Guiana savannah. J. Archaeol. Sci., 37: 2984-2994.

  4. Rostain, S., 2008. The Archaeology of the Guianas: An Overview. In: Handbook of South American Archaeology, Silverman, H. and W. Isbell (Eds.). Springer, New York, pp: 279-302.

  5. Rostain, S., 2008. Agricultural Earthworks on the French Guiana Coast. In: Handbook of South American Archaeology, Silverman, H. and W. Isbell (Eds.). Springer, New York, pp: 217-234.